Australian Open: Iga Swiatek will face Madison Keys in the semifinals. Ben Shelton wins, too
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Iga Swiatek is dominating her Australian Open opponents the way no one has at Melbourne Park since Maria Sharapova in 2013. Swiatek's latest lopsided win came via a 6-1, 6-2 score in the quarterfinals against No. 8 seed Emma Navarro on Wednesday. The No. 2-seeded Swiatek not only has not dropped a set so far in the tournament, but also has lost a grand total of only 14 games as she seeks her first title at Melbourne Park and sixth Grand Slam trophy overall. Sharapova was the last woman to reach the Australian Open semifinals having dropped fewer than 15 games.
“She does everything with 100% conviction and intensity,” Navarro said about Swiatek. “She has a different style of movement and play. It’s tough to not be sort of affected by that and not feel like, ‘OK, I have to do everything at the same speed that she’s doing it.’ So that was something, for sure, I felt a little bit today.”.
Swiatek will face No. 19 Madison Keys of the U.S. on Thursday night for a berth in the final. The other women’s semifinal is No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, the two-time defending champion, against her good friend, No. 11 Paula Badosa. Keys, whose best showing at a major was getting to the title match at the 2017 U.S. Open, was a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 winner against Elina Svitolina and is into her third semifinal in Australia.
“Iga is tough to beat, because she has a lot of spin, kind of naturally, on both sides. She’s a good server. She’s a good returner. She moves incredibly well,” Keys said. “The biggest thing that makes her so difficult to beat is, because she moves so well, if you miss your spot just slightly, she has enough time to recover, and then the point goes back to neutral.”.
